Convalescent Board Lacks Quorum In Carbon Briefly

The Carbon County Convalescent Home Building Authority was unable to hold its annual reorganization meeting yesterday because of a lack of a quorum.

John Havel of Lansford, authority chairman, and John Shofran of Tresckow, vice chairman, were the only members of the five-man board to attend.

Robert Steele of Palmerton, secretary, and Michael Hitchok of Jim Thorpe, assistant secretary treasurer were unable to attend. Loren Bisbing of Lehighton, the authority treasurer, died last year and a replacement has to be named by the Carbon County commissioners.

Havel said he will schedule another reorganizational meeting in the near future.

He also noted that Hitchok told him he had resigned.

The authority's charter was issued May 9, 1969, by the state, and it issued $6,370,886 in bonds on Dec. 1, 1971, to finance the construction of Weatherwood, the county home for the aged at Weatherly.

The nursing home was opened in November 1972, and since 1973, the commissioners have been using all of their federal revenue-sharing funds to pay the annual rental fee to the home building authority. The authority uses the rental fee to redeem the bonds when they come due. As of Jan. 1, the authority has $3,935,000 in outstanding bonds to be paid by the year 2002.

The home was constructed on a 30.2-acre tract of land in Weatherly in the vicinity of the community's middle and elementary school complex. It is a combination one- and two-story ultramodern structure of steel frame and masonry exterior. It contains two elevators and the entire facility is climate-controlled.

The 200-bed home for the elderly replaced the county's 100-year-old former institution district home at Laurytown, a short distance north of Weatherly.